NatureTheology6

As members of the biotic community, wildflowers and songbirds are valued mainly as creatures that offer beauty for humans to enjoy. Humans, as members of this very same biotic community, are also of great value. But of what value are we to the rest of this created community? What is our purpose in the order of life? We are called to unite, with all members of the biotic community in the effort to keep this earth and all of its inhabitants. This effort to keep the earth is known by some as our primordial calling and command. Dr. Larry Rasmussen frequently vocalizes this view, saying that “To till and serve…[is] the first [commandment] and it’s long, long, long before Moses and Sinai. It comes at the dawn of our species…40 To reintegrate this calling into our lives, Rasmussen advises:

[We must learn] over again to say yes and to say no in a Christian asceticism that loves the Earth fiercely in a simple way of life, a life of material simplicity and spiritual richness…How we live is the issue. And let us at least begin by forswearing false gods. Let us worship, not the God of the economy…but the God of the sparrow, the God of field and tree and children in city streets, the God of all those now departed species, the God whose creating still gives birth to stars and spins out galaxies billions of light years beyond us…Till this gift of life, and serve it, embrace it, cherish it. Keep the everlasting covenant.41

In order to keep the everlasting covenant, and for all of life to flourish, as intended, a reconciliation of the natural world and the world of faith is essential. Edmund Sinnot wisely advocates for the realms of faith and science to come together to provide what he calls an opportunity for the fullest and freest life.42 In regards to the potential for such abundant life, he says:

The time is ripe…for all men [and women] of faith, whether nurtured in the laboratory or the church and whatever the stripe of quality of their belief, not simply to declare a truce amongst themselves but actively to join forces for their common welfare and the saving of the world; for science to contribute to the purification and health of religion and for religion to exercise its gifts for the benefit of science. 43

This call for unity may be dismissed as radical idealism, but it is possible. Yet, the only way for this joining of forces to come about is for humankind to become reacquainted with the idea of stewardship…for all creation. This reacquaintence entails reexamining our concept of caretaking. Lewis Smedes helps us to begin this journey, by reminding us that,

Man and woman were set within a finite garden and made tenders of it for God and for his future caretakers…[Yet] we have subdued the earth, as God said, but we have done it without care. And careless subjugation is inhuman exploitation. Therefore, we have undermined the foundation of our property rights at the core, for we were made to own only so that we could take better care…Owning things is good only if our owning keeps faith with our calling to take care of the earth and of our brothers and sisters who inhabit it.44

Stewardship, a large task, requires our energy and love, as well as a shift in how we view the natural world. To be true property managers of the earth, we must be able to look at a forest and see it as our lungs, supplying us daily with fresh air. We must be able to look at an ocean, a lake, a river, a pond, the rain as our life-support, continually supplying us with water, liquid-life. We must be able to look at the plethora of insects, birds, land animals, mosses, trees, sea creatures, humans and everything in between as members of an interdependent community of life. Michal Smart is wise to say: “All creation praises God, and every voice in the chorus is needed. 45 Aldo Leopold would have agreed. In his Land Ethic, he addresses this essential harmony, saying:

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land…A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but it does affirm their right to continued existence…In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it….we have learned (I hope) that the conqueror role is eventually self-defeating. 46

In the weekly prayer said in St. Olaf College’s Boe Chapel we proclaim our role as citizen of the land-community when we say: “We dedicate ourselves to the care and redemption of all that You have created.” Creation groans and God craves for all to join in unison, to make this our daily prayer. We are free, and always have been, to relinquish our fears of fully embracing the natural created world, our very kin. Norman Habel describes all forms of created life as being Adamah. This is the Hebrew word meaning: ground, stuff, earth. Habel says:

Humans come from the grounds of the dry fields. This connection suggests a special kinship between humans and the ground/earth…From the beginning we have been made part of the web of organic life.

Dr. Rasmussen concurs, explaining humankind’s connectedness to the earth. He speaks of all the creatures on earth as being our co-siblings of creation, saying:

[T]hey, too, are all from adamah and return to it and they, each and every one, are all recipients of the very breath of God that gives them life. They, too, receive the Spirit; they, too, are kin. 47

As Jennifer Price wrote:

All humans are connected to nature…What changes is not the fact of connection, or the amount of meaning, but the content of each. 48

Then let us rediscover and savor the meaning of our connection to the natural world. Let us all partake in the festivities about which we sing in Marty Haugen’s hymn:

The heavens are telling the glory of God, and all creation is shouting for joy. Come dance in the forest, come play in the field, and sing, sing to the glory of the Lord.

Let us also contemplate the words of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, which were set to Ludwig van Beethoven’s The Worship of God in Nature, in which we sing:

The heav’ns are telling the Lord’s endless glory, Through all the earth His praise is found; The seas re-echo the marvelous story; O man, repeat that glorious sound! Who made the numberless stars of the heavens? Who from his chamber leads the sun? He comes rejoicing and laughs from afar off, A hero strong his race to run, A hero strong his race to run!

Stewardship may be a large undertaking, but we can begin by doing one simple thing, observing the Sabbath. Humans are intended to set aside a day for rest each week. Even God had a day of rest. It is time to let the land have a Sabbath, too. With no chance to rest and replenish itself, the earth is becoming more and more worn down. Forests have been completely and repeatedly clear-cut, and our mines completely and unrelentingly strip the soil of its nutrients and resources, devastating the land with little hope of renewal. Let it rest.

Engraved above one of the entrances to St. Olaf College’s Holland Hall is the following: “Nature—the living visible garment of God.” Let us begin to take better care of Royalty’s only garment, lest it not be worthy of offering back to the King.

44Lewis B. Smede, Mere Morality: What God Expects From Ordinary People (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 188.

45 Smart as cited in Keeping the Earth: Religious and Scientific Perspectives on the Environment.